3i works with talented management teams to develop businesses that have potential for significant growth. Each year we invest over €3bn supporting people who start, grow, change and buy businesses. During our 60-year history, we’ve worked with businesses of all sizes, in many industries and countries. Offshore business process outsourcing is causing a fundamental re-architecting of the service industry across the globe and we are committed to helping our investees benefit from this.

Companies across the world – particularly in the US and Europe – outsource their business processes, frequently sending them to specialist local providers but increasingly sending them to a different continent. It’s a phenomenon that organisations of all sizes and in all sectors will find impossible to ignore.

In this report, we examine the factors that underpin the rapid rise of offshore business process outsourcing (BPO). By talking to leaders in the field and exploring companies’ practical experiences, we identify current trends, highlight the factors that deliver sustainable competitive advantage and understand how to ‘make it happen’.

For suppliers of outsourcing and offshoring services, the critical success factors are becoming clear: the providers that win will have either scale, deep domain knowledge, or both. They will compete on the strength and depth of their talent pool, knowledge, technology-enabled infrastructure and client relationships – and they will deliver from a variety of locations to suit clients’ needs.

Outsourcing and offshoring present CEOs with a rare opportunity to transform the cost dynamics of their industries. More importantly it is allowing access to a wider talent pool and removing constraints on growth, creating a clearer line of sight on customers and markets, product and service innovation, and profitable growth.

These are issues on which every leader needs to take a stance. Those with vision and courage will seize the opportunities, use them to drive radical reinvention and win in their markets.